Going into his first fight of 2017, Benjamin Adegbuyi (27-4, 16 KO's) finds himself in the strange situation of being both the heavyweight division's #1 contender and the training partner of its champion, Rico Verhoeven.
On Friday he will face Anderson 'Braddock' Silva (40-15-1, 25 KO's), who coincidentally faced Verhoeven in his last outing. That fight, at GLORY 33, ended by way of TKO in the second round. Adegbuyi is hoping to repeat the feat.
“He's tough, he fought everybody in the division, old and new school. I want to fight the best guys, the ones who fought guys like Badr Hari and Gokhan Saki, and Anderson is one of them. I want to show that I am one of the best in GLORY and he's in front of me so he's next,” says the towering Romanian.
“He comes forward, doesn't back up. He's a good opponent for me. I am looking to establish my dominance. I am the bigger man, I am the stronger man, so definitely I will put the pain on him.”
Adegbuyi has twice unsuccessfully challenged Verhoeven for the belt. Late last year, he became part of Verhoeven's camp. Shortly after that he won the GLORY 35 NICE Heavyweight Contender Tournament, confirming his status as Verhoeven's leading challenger.
“Yeah I trained with Rico for this fight. But it's not weird, when you are training to become better then that's all you are thinking about. I am just trying to improve - whatever comes after, we will think about that at the time
“Definitely I think I will fight for the title later this year and we will see how is best to do it, I will talk with Rico and [coach] Dennis Krauweel, but we wont think about this until it comes. No point to think about it until it happens.
“Right now I am #1 contender and I am planning to stay that way, I really feel I am one of the best in the division. Someone would have to work hard to get my spot from me. If you're going to face me you need to be prepared.
“I am focused, determined. I make sacrifices, time away from my family. I am all-in into this game. I do everything I need to do to be the best, they will need to do the same otherwise they cannot get close to me.”
